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E1DA Cosmos ADC teardown

trl

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I recently purchased a Cosmos ADC from @IVX and I was pleased to see that the main envelope, from inside the package, had my name written on it in handwriting with a pencil, probably by Sunny, the nice lady that takes care of logistics for Ivan (@IVX). That put a big smile on my face immediately after opening up the FEDEX package. Cosmos ADC comes in a small and nice wood box that smells fantastic as...wood, of course, but a brand new wood that somehow made me think at a good old Whiskey. :)

tempImagegUOSVM.png

E1DA Cosmos ADC on its original wooden box


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A really low-noise and very performant THD ADC, self-powered from the USB-C computer port


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The two ADC inputs can be used in Stereo-mode, as it is, or in Mono-mode (a couple of dB better THD+N),
by simply summing pins 1-1, 2-2 and 3-3 with a XLR FMM Y-cable. Also notice the 43V RMS input from the AUX 4-pin jack


My Cosmos ADC is a Grade-A one, so you can see it written on the board, as well as on the the main wood case.

tempImagesBsSYw.png

Grade-A Cosmos ADC

Besides the "world's highest performance 32-bit analogue-to-digital (A/D) converter" chip (ES9822PRO) and extremely low distortions operational amplifiers (OPA1612) I can definitely spot a very nice and clean layout planted with high precision metal resistors, polymer capacitors and electrolytic capacitors rated @105C.

IMG_0366_.jpg

Top side view with Comtrue CT7601CR USB controller, ESS A/D converter and input buffer opamps

On the board there can also be seen an efficient dual-output DC-DC converter (TPS65130) along with smaller LDO regulators that take care of powering properly each stage of this ADC (separate regulators for both digital and analogue components).
tempImageP9ZQds.png

TPS65130 DC-DC converter.
Also, good to see soldering of that screw to the ground.


The backside has a DIP switch with multiple positions for properly adjusting the required input gain and input resistance as well.
tempImage3ZvUus.png

DIP switch to select input gain & impedance to cover input voltages fom 1.7 to 10 V RMS


Have a good look to the grounding: most manufacturers (if not all) are relying on copper-by-copper contacts made by the screws and the PCB ground. However, Ivan added soldering on top of each screw, just to make sure the grounding is perfect. Much appreciated by me and hope by others as well!
tempImagebcuyGo.png

USB-C port for connecting to the computer.
Nice soldering to the ground!


About E1DA Cosmos ADC there are already couple of ongoing threads, so there’s not much to say here, other than at the time of writting this article this is the best buget ADC in the world that can be used for analogue audio measurements. I was actually able to feed it with my Topping D90 MQA source and ARTA was showing me a figure pretty close to what @amirm measured: 120 dB of SINAD. Quite impressive decent priced ADC, so great work Ivan!
ToppingD90MQA_on_E1DA_Cosmos-Mono_Left_REW-Foobar1kHz_.png

Active forum threads about this very performant ADC:
 
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rdenney

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Is there a way to connect these to a laptop with only USB3 (Type A) ports? The 250mA requirement seems to be an issue.

Rick "whose computers with USBC connectors don't seem to work with anything" Denney
 
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trl

trl

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I'm using this ADC on a USB-A port which has 500 mA, like any regular USB-A USB2.0 port.
It works in the same manner on USB-A USB3.0 or USB3.1 computer port.
 

rdenney

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Use a suitable cable or adapter. The Cosmos is a plain USB 2.0 device despite having a Type C connector.
That answers it--thanks.

Rick "liking the idea of setting the gain to a standardized value" Denney
 

Blumlein 88

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How about trying this with Pkane's multitone software. Just curious what kind of results you will get.

Here is where you can download it.
This software is aimed at multi-tone test signals like the 32 tone one Amir uses from AP (one of the available choices in Multitone) and on up to test signals made of 1 thousand tones.

I'm at once wanting to get one of these ADC's and at the same time don't really need it. Cool product anyway.
 
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trl

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I was thinking to to this, thanks, but I need some time to find first...hope later today or tomorrow. Thanks again!
 

AudioJester

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Is there an "idiots" guide on how to use this device to measure a dac? Got me thinking.
 

Vict0r

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I still don't understand what this thing is meant to do. Not the unit's fault, ofcourse. I'm just too much of a noob to get it. :p
 
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trl

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I still don't understand what this thing is meant to do. Not the unit's fault, ofcourse. I'm just too much of a noob to get it. :p
Cosmos ADC appeared on the market to properly calibrate an existing DAC named 9038S by using couple of dedicate applications. This is done by lowering 2nd and 3rd harmonics and other gimmicks, like shown by Ivan in the above video.

However, most people around will probably use this high performance ADC for measurement purposes, to measure their DACs or other adio sources, but also to measure power amplifiers too (well, up to 10V RMS on XLR input or 43V RMS on the AUX input).

Some folks here would love to add in front of Cosmos ADC a mic preamp and a 48V phantom power as well, so they can use it as a regular studio interface.

Hope the above answers to your question.
 

rdenney

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I think people are also intrigued by the prospect of using the device to digitize vinyl for archive or for dsp, like digital riaa or active crossovers.
Yes. This would require a line-level input, and could work with a standard setting for level (providing a bit of headroom for later normalization).

Rick "who currently uses a Benchmark ADC for that purpose, but it's a bit overkill just for that" Denney
 
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trl

trl

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How about trying this with Pkane's multitone software. Just curious what kind of results you will get.

Here is where you can download it.
This software is aimed at multi-tone test signals like the 32 tone one Amir uses from AP (one of the available choices in Multitone) and on up to test signals made of 1 thousand tones.

I'm at once wanting to get one of these ADC's and at the same time don't really need it. Cool product anyway.
Multitone_1kHz_D90_CosmosADC_.png

Above would be Topping D90 MQA on Cosmos ADC. Almost 2dB worse than ARTA, bunt not sure if it's due to the internal Multitone's generator or perhaps Multitone is measuring a bandpass bigger than 20...20kHz? @pkane pls hlp.

Later Edit: I redid same test with ARTA and now I got a THD+N of -118.416dB. So, like Ivan said, warming up Cosmos ADC prior to do measurements should help (it was calibrated for 27C). This is why sometimes I get 1-2 dB better.
 
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Atanasi

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I recently purchased a Cosmos ADC from @IVX and I was pleased to see that the main envelope, from inside the package, had my name written on it in handwriting with a pencil, probably by Sunny, the nice lady that takes care of logistics for Ivan (@IVX).
I didn't get the handwritten inscription. I am so disappointed.
 
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trl

trl

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I am going to tease you with mine below then. :)

IMG_0393.jpg

It would be interesting to find out what the first row says, perhaps @IVX may help here with translation.
 
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